


Match Unmade

by insaneaboutwolfsbane (werelocked)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-04-25 17:11:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14383230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werelocked/pseuds/insaneaboutwolfsbane
Summary: Liam lost his soulmate a long time ago. Theo's convinced never had one to begin with.aka Soulmate AU where soulmates can feel each other's emotions. As the bond matures over time, they can eventually share thoughts





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note, Tara's older than Theo but I left her age unspecified (because I'm lazy)

Soulmate was a word Theo knew before he could even talk. It wasn’t his first word - no that had been ‘firetruck’ with fewer ‘tr’ sounds and more ‘f’s than necessary - though it was his top ten.

Theo never remembered really being taught what it was. It was so intrinsic to society, from casual conversations with family and friends to being the topic of a lot of media, everyone knew what it meant. Maybe that’s why his parents never had the patience when Theo started having questions. Theo was three. He asked a lot of questions.

He eventually gave up on that particular subject when he came to a realization. He didn’t have a soulmate. He didn’t have that bond with another person, where he was supposed to feel all the emotions they were feeling. According to his sister that connection should be present right when two people were born, and would be cultivated by both sides for the rest of their lives.

Tara didn’t talk much about her own soulmate much, to the disappointment of their parents.She told Theo a few stories though, and always answered his questions. She was the only one he was comfortable approaching early one morning soon after his fourth birthday.

“Something happened,” he admitted to her in the safety of her room. He sat on the bed next to her without making eye contact.

“What’s going on, bub?” Tara asked gently.

“Something feels - weird?” Theo patted his chest. “In here.”

“What does it feel like?”

Theo’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think. “I get happy, then sad, then happy, then sad.”

“Are you having mood swings?” Now Tara looked concerned.

“No. I will feel happy here -” He pointed to the left side of his chest, “-but then also feel happy here.” He jabbed right over his heart. “Like it’s me, but not me.”

A slow smile spread over Tara’s face, though she tried to suppress it. “What about here, does anything feel different?” She tapped his forehead.

Once again her brother looked deep in thought. He nodded once. “Last night I couldn’t sleep. Thought about applesauce so loud, again and again. Don’t even like applesauce.”

“Oh, Theo.” This time Tara didn’t try to hide her delight. “You have your soulmate.”

She explained that he was probably feeling that connection for the first time, which was why the thoughts and emotions felt so intense. It took a long time for him to believe that after all this time he’d been wrong.

“They’re probably younger than you. That’s why it took so long.” Tara ruffled his hair. “That sucks, cause your bond will depend on where the other person is in their development and it’ll take longer for your emotions to click with one another. But it’ll be worth it, bub. Because once they do, you can hear each other’s thoughts and then you’ll be able to find each other and then…"

She let out a sigh. “It’s amazing. You just have to wait.”

Theo could wait. In the meantime focused on school, and found he really liked to learn about science to pass the time. He tried little league sports too, though his health didn’t let him do a whole lot. But he tried. And that’s how he meet Scott McCall - and by extension, Stiles Stilinski. The sheriff’s kid was fine but it was Scott he really connected to. Scott’s lungs sometimes didn’t work right, and neither did his own so it was nice to be friends with someone who knew what it was like.

He wasn’t Scott’s favorite, that was Stiles. Just as his older sister was his parent’s favorite, so he was used to that. Someday he would meet his soulmate, the one person he would always be first for. For now, he had his friends and he had his sister. It was enough to have two more people looking out for him and carrying inhalers nearby.

Every now and then a more severe asthma attack would land Theo in the hospital and he could always count on Scott to visit. Stiles did too sometimes, likely to have already been there receiving medicine for his own well-being or watching his mother treatments for hers.

Halfway through second grade Stiles missed school for an entire week. It only took two days max before Scott disappeared as well and Theo didn’t see either of them until a completely innocent game of tag brought on an asthma attack nasty enough to make him black out.

When Theo woke up he felt a knot in his chest. He rubbed at the spot absently before remembering the steroids the doctors had given him should have kicked in by now. The pain he felt wasn’t his own.

_Did you feel that?_ Theo wondered. He knew his soulmate couldn’t hear him. They weren’t at that level yet. But he felt guilty, so he had to try. _I’m sorry. I didn’t think you could feel my asthma attacks, that must have been scary._

A sniffle sounded across the room and he looked over to see two visitors standing in the doorway. Stiles looked so scared and he had a death grip on Scott’s arm while the other boy simply looked helpless. Theo was completely lost on how to help any of them.

Theo looked at Tara. “Mom always says it’s okay to cry when you’re scared.” He repeated himself in his head, thinking it extra hard, for the sake of his soulmate.

Tara didn’t say a word, only pulled them both up next to Theo as she always did when one of them found themselves in a hospital bed. His sister cuddled the three seven-year-olds and made them promise to always help ease each other’s pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tara's character played a much bigger role than I meant it to! Which sucks because we all know how that goes...  
> Also writing 4 year olds+ is really hard. Let me know if I did a great/terrible job ❤︎


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edited 2/14/19

Liam had an imaginary friend. Sort of.

For as long as he could remember he'd felt a presence, as close as his shadow and just out of reach. Yet whenever he felt sick or hurt, the connection between them solidified around him as if his invisible friend wrapped him in a gentle hug.

Occasionally they would brush against Liam and their emotions would bump together. Sometimes the touch brought cold, sharp sadness or burning hot anger and the intensity of emotions made Liam cry. While he was a baby he had no clue how to ease the pain like his friend did for him. Fortunately the connection was mostly peaceful, and persistent. Liam never felt alone.

As he grew up the presence solidified. At night Liam dreamed of a figure flicker at the edge of his vision, and would wake up with different words or phrases echoing in his ears.

He thought he’d made it all up in his head. Until he learned there was a word for it.

“Mama, what’s a soulmate?”

His mom winced. “How did you hear about that?”

“Mason’s daddy brought his mama flowers during snacktime. She said he was her soulmate.”

She sighed. “We’re going to have a big boy talk. Can you listen like a big boy?” She hoisted him onto the kitchen island and raised her eyebrows.

Liam nodded eagerly. “I’m a big boy, I’m three!” He waved four fingers to remind her. “I listen!”

Mama grabbed the hand he was waving and kissed his palm. “Okay, let me know if you get stuck. So a soulmate is just two words put together. Can you tell me what words they are?”

“Soulmate. Soul and mate.”

“Very good. And the meaning is just like it sounds. Everyone has this one soul, and for every soul there is another one out in the universe that matches it perfectly.”

“What kind of match?” Liam asked, already looking a little lost. He squirmed on the island and swung his feet.

Mama pushed a plate of cookies close to him and he settled down. “Well, there’s different kinds. In most cases it’s romantic, though soulmates who stay friends is also common. They stay platonic.”

“‘Plonic.” He repeated through a mouthful of cookie.

“That means when you and your soulmate fall in love, they might become your partner or the best friend you’ve ever had.”

That perked Liam right up. “I have one too? Is it Mason?”

She smiled. “Yes, sweetie. Everyone has one. And yours might end up being Mason. We have to wait to find out.”

Immediately Liam pouted. “I wanna know now.”

“You’re not quite ready, Liam. There are steps the relationships has to go through. It seems like yours is on the right track, though.”

“Really?”

“The first step of the soul bond is sharing emotions. You’ve already felt some of that, haven’t you? Don’t you remember how your chest has been hurting and I’ve had to rush you to the doctor?”

Liam nodded. A few days ago, he’d been watching TV quietly while Mama washed the dishes. A sudden tightness in his chest took him by surprise; his heart burned and his lungs felt ready to pop. He was so scared he started crying, and Mama was so scared she drove him to the hospital.

“The doctors told me that what you were feeling was likely an accident with your soulmate.” Mama didn’t look very happy about that.

“It doesn’t always hurt!” Liam protested. “They stay quiet. When I’m scared or sad or tired, they try to help me. Sometimes I can hear words.”

“Eventually, you’ll be able to completely read each other’s minds.” Mama told him. “That’s one of the last steps of the relationship, to help you two meet if you haven’t already. But it takes a lot of time to be able to get to that point.”

“So it’s real?” Liam whispered, mostly to himself. “I have a soulmate?”

Mama nodded. She looked very serious. “I know it’s exciting, but please listen when I say it’s also a lot of hard work. It won’t all make sense right away, so come to me if you have more questions, okay?”

“Okay, mama.”

His mom scooped him up and placed him on the ground again. She handed him another cookie. For a second she paused with her hand on his back. “Take your time, sweetheart.”

Puzzled, Liam nodded blankly at her. Why wasn’t she more excited? He had a soulmate! He was going to meet someone someday who he could love as much as Mason and his mom. Still, he nodded. “Okay, mama.”

Liam had promised to be a big boy, and tried to listen to his mom about taking it slow. But he just couldn’t help himself. He didn’t obsess about it but the idea never fully left his thoughts either, always lingering in the back of his mind. During play dates whenever Liam made a new friend he wondered about his soulmate. When would they meet? How? When would he know? Even Mason didn’t know, and Mason knew everything.

When he started school a year and a half later, Liam was thrilled to find someone who had some answers.

“Lori Talbot has a soulmate.” Liam gasped breathlessly.

School originally was a distraction from his fixation. Liam really wanted to be good and pay attention during class so he didn’t let his mom down. It was easy to keep that up in history; learning about the world fascinated him.

Sometimes his teachers would talk about their soulmates and his friends would spend recess trying to pair each other up. Whenever Liam learned about a cool fact he would write it out and read it over and over, so if his real match was listening they might find it as interesting as he did.

He really tried to avoid talking about it at home. It always seemed to make his mom tense, and yet it was the first thing he blurted out when she was driving them home after a long day of first grade.

“Oh?” Mom’s voice was tight. “Who is it?”

“Her brother, Brett. She’s five like me, but Brett’s two years older. She brought him in for show and tell.”

“That’s nice.”

Liam wiggled excitedly. “They’re so lucky. I dunno who mine is yet. I want it to be Mason. Do you think it’s him? Can I have a sister?”

The car jerked to a stop. Mom had her eyes on the light but she glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “You know it doesn’t work like that.”

“Mason and I tried to read each other’s minds at recess today. We put our heads together to see if it would help, but that hurt.” Liam rubbed his forehead.

“You can’t force it, Liam.” Mom said sternly. “It’s not a game. I wish you found out when you were older. Soulmates don’t always work out the way you want them to. Some people never get past the feelings stage to read each other’s minds. Some people go their whole life without meeting their soulmate. Sometimes your soulmate changes.”

Mom suddenly had this faraway look on her face. When she spoke again her voice cracked. “Sometimes, it’s not the person you think it is. You get it all wrong. And you have to decide to let your soulmate go. It will be up to you to figure out what kind of relationship it is and how it’s going to make you happy.”

From the backseat Liam couldn’t reach her. He tried to wiggle free from his booster seat with no luck so he smiled at real wide in the rearview mirror. “I’m happy. I think I can make them happy, too. I’ll try real hard.”

She still looked a little sad. “I know you will, baby.”

The rest of the drive home was quiet. Liam decided to not bring up soulmates anymore, not until he found his. Then they could meet his mom and make her happy too. He couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, Liam and Theo have very conflicting views on this whole soulmate thing!  
> So I rewrote this chapter three times and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. If anyone has constructive criticism (particularly on the first few paragraphs lol) I'd love to hear it.  
> Thanks for reading ❤❤


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter took so long! It seems like this story is going to be a struggle all the way through.  
> Hope you like it!  
> Edit: reposting after heavy edits on 2/1/19 :)

Scott lost his dad first. Nobody had seen it coming.

Not the divorce, Theo expected that as soon as he saw Scott limping at school Friday morning. Mr. McCall moved out the very next day.

From his window he saw the man pack stuff up in his car and drive off. Theo could see Scott’s mom standing in the doorway, always keeping herself between her estranged husband and where he knew Scott was waiting just inside the hallway. She hadn’t even let them say goodbye, not that he imagined Scott wanting to.

Theo never got the impression the McCalls were meant to be together. He and Stiles had spent plenty of dinners with the family - the four of them at the dinner table while Mr. McCall nursed a dark bottle and promised to join them soon. Almost invariably, he would pass out on the living room couch by the time they were done. That was when he bothered to be around the house at all.

Nobody liked to bring it up, especially not Scott. He loved hanging out with his mom and dragging her to every parent volunteer or career day, and as many show-and-tells as he could get away with. He’d brag about her cool job and declare that all he wanted was to help people when he grew up, just like his mom. It made his silence on his father much more apparent.

Theo even saw it with Mrs. McCall too, sometimes. During those dinners when the volume of the TV wasn’t loud enough to drown out the snoring or when Scott stared too long at the empty seat next to her during his sports games, there was always something a little off when she smiled.

He wasn’t sure if it was because he knew the signs of someone going through the motions of loving someone else, but Theo could tell both Mr. McCall’s wife and son only barely tolerated him. He didn’t know why, and wondered if that was all love was. Just putting up with someone for the sake of avoiding some unknown, worse option.

Would Theo’s soulmate be like that too? So far most of the emotions Theo felt through their connection were happy, with only flashes of anger or sadness. Theo tried keeping most of his feelings to himself. He didn’t want to send another asthma attack or any other pains Theo sometimes felt. If he kept the connection positive, he was sure they wouldn’t end up like the McCalls.

Once, Scott had whispered a secret in the darkness of a sleepover; how he wished his parents _weren’t_ soulmates. Theo didn’t have the heart to tell him how his own parents were always muttering about how Melissa and Rafael ‘deserved’ each other so it had to be true.

Still, Nurse Melissa kicked him out for Scott’s sake. Theo knew she’d never take any of her grief or anger out on her son - though he’d cost her her soulmate. He knew her, that she’d never even dream of taking her husband’s side in something like this.

She’d been his nurse in the hospital long enough for him to understand these things, even at nine years old. It was someone he picked up while avoiding her own prying, the calculating looks and pointed questions about his own life.

No; despite their snide comments Theo’s parents predicted the divorce, expected it any day now. The unknown variable was Claudia Stilinski, and the chances of Melissa’s best friend living long enough to see the divorce papers finalized. It made Theo feel sick. It made Tara angry.

Then again, it didn’t take much to set his sister off these days. A few weeks ago Theo had woken up with chest pains, and stumbled to her door to find it locked to him for the first time. He’d turned away without knocking but the door opened behind him anyway.

They laid on Tara’s bed for hours, listening to their parents wandering around. When they finally went to bed both the kids and the house seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

“I’ll get us out.” Tara whispered. “I promise.”

Theo let hope rise for a moment. He rolled on his side to look at her. “And your soulmate? Would they help us?”

A small smile - the first one he’d seen from her in weeks - tugged at her lips. “Yeah.”

“Are they going to meet mom and dad?”

It was the wrong question to ask, wiping the happiness off his sister’s face. She kept her eyes firmly on the ceiling. “They can’t ever know. They don’t really care, they just want something else to brag about so they can seem better than everyone else.”

Once Tara started criticizing their parents she didn’t seem to want to stop. “Mom and dad - they love grabbing onto anything beautiful just to hold it still while they poison it until it’s just as awful and evil is they are.” She finally turned to glance at him fiercely. “They won’t have you. I won’t let anything do that to you.” Theo fell asleep holding her hand.

The next morning Tara’s walls went back up, literally and figuratively. She was distant at best, and downright cold in her worst moods. She stopped talking to their parents. The tension increased in pressure that seemed to fill every room of the house. The next day that chest pains kept Theo home from school again, it finally exploded.

Theo heard a crash downstairs. “What’s going on?”

His mom and dad were standing in the kitchen looking smug. Tara’s face was red and splotchy and tears streamed freely down her cheeks.

“Claudia Stilinski passed away earlier this morning.” Mom stated, as casually as if discussing the weather.

The words knocked the breath from his chest. Part of Theo wanted to run all the way to the Stilinski house, but he doubted he’d ever make it. Even standing still in the kitchen it felt as if his world and his chest were caving in.

“How could you say it like that? How can you act like it doesn’t even matter?” Tara’s voice cracked with grief.

“What good will tears do now?” Dad shrugged. “She’s dead.”

Tara gaped at them both, practically shaking with rage. “I’ve got to get out of here.” With a disgusted sneer she stormed from the kitchen and to her room.

Their mom reached for her purse on the kitchen table. He saw her exchange money with her husband before he raced after his sister. He wasn’t fast enough to escape the satisfied tone of their gossiping.

This time Tara’s door was closed, but not locked. Theo tried the handle and pushed inside only to find the room empty. He huddled on her bed alone, wishing he could still make his way to see Stiles. Scott was definitely there with him, who he also hadn’t seen since his dad left.

Both of his closest - and only - friends had lost someone important to them, and he hadn’t been able to help them through it. He hadn’t been there.

All of his past effort to keep up with Scott and Stiles was useless. He couldn’t compete with his bad lungs and more recently, his bad heart.

After that Theo’s chest pains kept getting worse. He had _another_ health issue and this time his parents didn’t bother with finding out the cause - much less a cure for him. He was a lost cause, so they could dump Theo off on the doctors at the hospital and stop pretending to care.

Even the sporadic contact from his soulmate was more and more infrequent. Clearly it was only a matter of time before they cut him off too, for good.

It didn’t surprise him that nobody visited him in the hospital anymore. Not even Tara.

Theo couldn’t do anything right, when everything was wrong with him.

 

* * *

  

Something was wrong with Liam.

One moment he was in the lunch line waiting his turn. In the next, something inside him dropped heavily like a stone into a pond and pain rippled through him. Tiny fault lines fissured and spread through his whole heart and made his pulse race. He stood still, shivering and sweating and nauseated. The cafeteria scene before him was the last thing he could see before an unknown force punched through his mind and the image shattered.

All his thoughts quieted and he sank into dark, cool black.

 

Bright white lights woke him up. His eyes barely fluttered open to take in the nurse’s office before his mom’s face filled his vision.

“What happened?”

Mom didn’t answer. She looked over her shoulder and Liam had to blink a few times to bring the nurse into focus. The woman gave him a wary look he didn’t understand and left the room. Mom took his hand, helping him off the bed and to the door. Instead of going to the car like he expected, she led him to the cafeteria.

Round tables were spaced throughout the room. A small stage rose to their left and food stations lined the opposite wall.

The school had many rules to follow, including keeping the cafeteria neat. So Liam didn’t understand the disaster before him. Smeared food dried along tables and liquids dripped down the walls into sticky puddles on the floor. One glass window separating the food serving and seating areas was completely shattered.

Janitors bustled all around them, cleaning up the mess. His mom ignored them, taking his hand and pulling him over to sit on the steps of the stage.

The sadness on her face frightened him. “What’s going on?”

“There was an accident. A student got angry, lost control, and destroyed the cafeteria.” She smoothed a hand through his hair. “Honey, _you_ had an accident.”

Liam gaped at her. “What? No, I - I don’t remember. Something started hurting and I-” He clutched at his chest.

“You blacked out.” Mom finished softly. “I saw you fall to your knees and thought it was an asthma attack. I thought it was another false alarm from your soul mate but — Oh sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”

“Why?”

“The nurse thinks whatever _this_ was, was caused by your soulmate. Something must have happened.”

“No.” Liam shook his head. He rubbed his hand over his heart.

Mom looked unbearably sad. “I need to take you to the hospital to make sure you’re okay. They might be able to find out more."

Liam didn’t say a word the entire car ride. He refused to take his mom’s hand and marched inside on his own. A pretty nurse with curly hair took his name and showed him to the toys in the waiting room while his mom caught up. She didn’t sit in a chair but on the floor next to him instead. He couldn’t look at her.

They were taken to an empty room by the nurse, who propped him up in the bed while asking his mom a lot of questions. He listened intently to her answers to fill in the gaps of his memory.

She explained the only reason she’d been at school in the first place was for parent career day. She meant to return to work after lunch before Liam’s ‘incident.’

“He wanted to get me another pudding cup when he just - froze. He started trembling before he fell to the ground. I was terrified it was a seizure or worse.” Mom’s lip quivered. “But he stood up, and for a moment I saw… he was crying. Then he started throwing things, destroying anything he could get his hands on. I tried to help, but it was like he couldn’t hear me. The physical education teacher had to pick him up and carry him to the nurse. I got him in bed and he passed out like nothing happened.”

The nurse took notes and relayed the story to the doctor while they ran tests on Liam. Several more doctors came in and out, all speaking to each other in hushed whispers. They trickled out slowly until it was just the nurse again. She handed his mom the test results and whispered to her some more. Mom only nodded as if everything only confirmed her suspicions. Then they were alone.

Mom took a deep breath. “Honey, so they had some specialists look at your case. They believe you’re exhibiting signs of a possible behavioral issue. They asked if anything like this has happened before and I told them about your temper tantrums, remember?”

Liam nodded. He knew lots of kids who had temper tantrums, even some of his friends. The only difference was that most of them happened with good reasons - like someone wanted another cookie or a nap - and lots of kids grew out of them.

Meanwhile Liam was already seven, and he threw a fit just last week because when it was his turn to read aloud in English, there was a word he didn’t know. He’d gotten so embarrassed, then so angry that he jumped out of his chair and shoved his desk so hard it flipped over.

They called his mom. She took him home early and he didn’t even need for her to tell him his reaction had been too much.

“I don’t mean to.” Liam said softly. “Wanted to hide under the desk, but I did that instead.”

“I know, sweetie. We thought it was a problem with your impulse control, because we didn’t have another name for it. Now the test results show the tantrums are symptoms of something called Intermittent Explosive Disorder. It can affect you physically and mentally in different ways.”

Liam thought back to the cafeteria. He didn’t remember destroying it, only the darkness. “It was really scary.”

“I know,” Mom said. “The doctors will help us treat it. Since you have a history, they said his incident didn’t magically cause you to have IED, but possibly helped make it more intense, and had it develop quicker than it might’ve happened otherwise. They have a theory it was kickstarted by emotional trauma...” she trailed off.

That’s when Liam remembered what she had mentioned earlier. “Was it my soulmate? What happened?

“Your bond isn’t fully developed, but the doctors believe at least one of their tests should’ve pulled on your link. Any activity from the other side was unresponsive, so… they believe it’s been broken.”

Liam looked down. The scratchy beige hospital blanket shifted while he squirmed. “Could they feel my accident? Did I scare them away?”

“I don’t think you met them yet, sweetie.” Jenna had checked. Scouring the local news for any tragic accidents involving children as well as casually calling the parents of her son’s friends. Thought it was awkward and stressful, and there _had_ been buzz about an accident in the next town over, she made sure everyone with a connection to her son was accounted for.

“Then why doesn’t my soulmate want me anymore?” Liam’s voice cracked.

Jenna knew the truth. Without a doubt in her mind because she watched it happen. She saw her son collapse, saw grief and heartbreak he couldn’t process turn into an all-consuming rage that wiped his mind clean.

But Liam didn’t remember. Young as he was, his mind already worked to protect him from the most painful conclusion there was. Obviously his soulmate gave up on him, Liam would know otherwise. Had the first official episode of IED not only let Liam feel the shadow of pain as his soulmate died.

She couldn’t say anything. Nothing would make this easier. Only time would help Liam come to terms with the truth.

For once Mom didn’t have an answer for him. She climbed next to him on the bed and he let her, trying to ignore the feeling that nothing was going to make sense ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some quick notes (in case anyone's confused)  
> 1: All the kids assume they are, but Melissa and Rafael are not soulmates! Who would you like to see her real soulmate be?  
> 2: Tara loves Theo just as much as he loves her! Her behavior to him isn't great but she's under a lot of pressure as she's planning to get them both away from their parents. Theo doesn't understand it all, which opens him up to manipulation we see from the show with the Dread Doctors  
> And finally, 3: so between Theo's cliffhanger and what Liam ends up feeling is the first experiment with the Doctors, aka Theo's "death"
> 
> If anything was too vague, please let me know! Feedback keeps me going ❤❤❤


End file.
